Ansel Adams Wilderness Off-trail Backpack

[HikerScott]

I'm planning a mostly off-trail backpack in August using the Sierra High Route from Devils Postpile to Blue Lakes, and then going south and east past Rockbound Lakes, down Long Creek and then back to DPP via Hemlock Crossing, Iron Creek and Beck Lakes Pass. A CalTopo map of the proposed trip is here:

https://caltopo.com/m/5N4UCDC

Based on the topo and Google Earth, it all looks do-able. I've done quite a lot of off-trail backpacking in the Sierra and can handle up to moderate Class 3. Any advice or comments, particularly the off-trail sections along Long Creek and Iron Creek? [Disclaimer: I've used HST for a number of years, but this is my first post.]

Thanks,
Scott

[frozenintime]

hey! great trip. this is very similar -- almost identical -- to the route we had in mind in 2021, which we dialed back considerably due to weather and general slowness, especially along iron creek.

the full report is here if you haven't seen it: https://badmountain.org/the-mammoth-follies

a few thoughts:

-- you could continue down long creek further than your line shows. there is a relatively cliffy section around 8300-8400 ft that sounds doable for you, after which i would cut south around 8000 ft until i met the hemlock crossing trail. i could be wrong, but i'm not sure that the long creek trail you show yourself joining is in great shape -- so you may not gain much time by going that way vs just plunging down long creek.

-- we found the iron creek drainage to be much more time consuming than the topo would indicate -- and we were descending!

-- has the hemlock crossing bridge been replaced yet? it was mauled by winter 2023. maybe the creek is crossable by august of this year? i wouldn't try in the immediate vicinity of the bridge, though, that seems more like a swim.

[wildhiker]

Hi Scott, and welcome to HST. My wife and I did the route down Long Creek from Bench Canyon to the packer's trail back in 2011. We had looped from Isberg Trailhead up past Sadler Lake, past Harriet Lake, over Blue Lake Pass into Bench Canyon where we camped at about 10k elevation. Then we decided to cross over to Long Creek on the broad saddle west of hill 10663T on the topo. Easy walk up grassy slopes on the north side, but we ended up descending a narrow ravine on the south side full of large boulders - a real pain. Your planned route from Blue Lake to Rockbound Lake is probably easier. We descended the Long Creek drainage first on the east side of the creek. We crossed to the west side by the two small lakelets next to the word "Long" on the topo because it looked easier from that point. At about 9200 feet elevation, we left the immediate creek environs and started traversing along the southern slope, gradually gaining elevation, until we hit that little side creek where you show your planned route ascending. We found the packer trail just on the east side of that creek. It was a good trail all the way to the broad saddle west of hill 9734T. At that point, we left the trail and contoured cross-country east along the mostly open ridge until we could see Lost Lake and then descended to it, where we camped. Next day, we headed south through mostly open forest, staying well back of the steep slopes to the east, until we intersected the Stevenson Trail, which we took back to complete our loop.

If you enable the "Fire History" layer in Caltopo, you can see that the big Creek fire in 2020 burned the slope used by the Stevenson Trail to get down to Hemlock Crossing. You may have issues with deadfall along that trail. There was a HST trip report in 2021 or 2022 from someone who descended it after the fire - look for it. But as frozenintime states, you may have a big problem crossing the North Fork San Joaquin if the bridge is still out.

-Phil

[giantbrookie]

I did the part from SE of Sadler (~8900' level) up Long Creek to Rockbound/Blue and to Twin Island Lakes. All of this is class 1-2 and the micro route finding (ie avoiding small cliffs etc) is not that bad. I recall that on the long traverse between Blue and Twin Island Lakes there are few places where you have to choose your traverse elevation well to be between cliffs, but there are wide open sightlines that allow you to see what you're doing pretty well. The southernmost part around the Sadler shoulder is shown as being a trail, but in 1994 when I did it one could only follow old trail segments in patches, so even by 1994 this was essentially off trail as well (all the way from the vicinity of Cora Lake). The Blue-Twin Island traverse is notable for the wide open views southward across the San Joaquin as well as the west flank Ritter Range views.

[HikerScott]

Thanks to all of you. This is great beta.
Scott